It’s Danseur’s season, any other show is just borrowing it for 23 minutes.

The only fault I can find with Dance Dance Danseur, really, is that it’s not going to be longer.  On the one hand it’s a crime that this series is ending in four episodes, but on the other it’s truly remarkable how much it can pack into 11 of them without feeling rushed.  It’s a big story full of big ideas and big emotions, but it manages to feel elegant and self-contained each and every week.  That such epic performance is coming from such a frankly unexpected series just makes my appreciation that much more expansive.

I think we can safely say this was the most GAR ballet episode in anime history (in the tiger cub sense).  DDD is going a long way towards unmaking some of the preconceptions most people have about ballet dancers, and in the process it’s one of the most thoughtful explorations of masculinity anime has offered up in ages.  Three key players we briefly met last week become major factors here.  First there’s Himenokouji Kotobuki (Inoue Jun), the jug-eared boy who quickly befriends Junpei.  Then there’s the alpha-male Takura Yamato (Nishimaya Koutarou), the ex-basketball player most threatened by Luou and Junpei’s arrival.

The most important of the trio, however, seems to be Yasuda Misaki (Amasaki Kouhei).  He eschew’s Yamato’s brash combativeness but he’s shrewder and seemingly more dangerous.  He scolds Yamato that Junpei is “better than he is”, because of all the corrections Yamato laughs at – if Junpei didn’t fix things, Nakamura-sensei wouldn’t bother to keep correcting him.  And indeed Junpei is improving, even Nakamura says so – though the boy is acutely aware of the huge disadvantage the experience gap represents for him.

This is serious business – the summer class students are competing for one spot in the SS class.  A class which, Junpei is stunned to learn from Kotobuki, sometimes gets to perform with the professional company.  Kotobuki takes the newbies to see an Oikawa performance of Romeo & Juliet with a guest dancer from Russia (Luou is roundly disinterested until he hears that part), and Junpei is utterly entranced yet again.  He has the soul of a performer burning inside him – he belongs on the big stage, not in the audience – and is beginning to understand what will be required of him if he’s ever to reach it.

Yamato and Misaki express their hostility towards Junpei and Luou very differently, but they each make it clear they resent the newcomers’ acceptance into the class – especially when Junpei declares that he’s still loyal to Goudai-sensei.  In the face of Yamato’s mockery – under which Junpei is wilting a bit – Luou snaps back that he and Junpei were the most well-liked by the audience (certainly true) at the competition where Oikawa-sensei publicly derided them.  It can’t be overstated how ballsy it is for Luou to stand up to a bully like this, given his history – and his resistance leads to a competition.  Pirouettes – and if the newbies lose, they agree to leave the program.

There’ a lot to unpack here, to be sure.  Takura-kun is certainly a crowd-pleaser, and gets a bigger response from the assembled grommets than Junpei.  But Junpei actually performs the much technically-cleaner routine (a real role-reversal), as Natsuki (Fukuen Misato) – don’t look her up in the credits if you don’t want to be spoiled – points out.  Miyako is a day student at the Oikawa too, and she’s watching as well.  Then it’s Luou’s turn to take the “stage”, and he so thoroughly destroys the crowd that Yasuda-kun doesn’t even bother to compete.  He does, however, become far more interested in Luou than before (which seems unlikely to be a good thing).

Yamato is won over to be sure, and the five boys head off to “Fumiro” (ironically I had Jiro ramen a few hours before watching the episode) for 2.000 calorie bowls and male bonding.  While the others banter Yasuda is researching Luou on his phone, though he keeps his cards close to the vest for now.  Afterwards they proceed to “dance off the calories” under the stars, and the whole enterprise has the air of yearling bucks testing their new antlers against each other.  As usual Danseur gets the feel of the moment just right – as the kids become more comfortable around each other, they retain an unspoken urge to prove their dominance.  It’s friendly, but very competitive in the way male friendships (especially at that age) usually are.

This is a big deal for Luou, of course – almost surely the first time he’s ever socially interacted with boys his own age in a voluntary way.  But Yasuda-kun is a serious threat, that seems clear – he wants that SS spot and seems like the type to exploit any vulnerability to get it.  Male friendships come easily to Junpei, that’s no issue for him.  But he’s learning what being a professional ballet dancer really means – and just how much his own perception of it was childish and naive.  He and Luou are uniquely positioned to help each other and drive each other forward, their respective life and ballet skills very complementary.  But they’re still both guys, and that complicates matters a bit.